This year the judging process will take place in three stages:

Stage One

All entries are submitted to the Judges Coordinator who will read your uploaded written submission and view any accompanying support materials. All entries are considered according to the criteria and if necessary edited to the required length. The Judges Coordinator will then put together a shortlist of entries based on those which best fulfil the criteria for innovation and excellence, and which best answer all five questions for each category. The shortlists are then submitted to the Judges panel.

Stage Two

For each award category, teams of three judges will be allocated to mark the shortlists. Judges are allocated to each category according to their skill and knowledge base, avoiding any conflict of interest. All of the judges have signed a confidentiality agreement. The judges will read your uploaded written submission, view the accompanying support material online at their discretion (as stated in the rules of entry) and allocate marks accordingly. The judges will complete this process individually and independently. The judges' scores are then sent to the Judges Coordinator who collates them and provides brief comments offering their thoughts on entries.

Stage Three

The judges will come together as a panel to discuss and offer their feedback on all of the shortlisted entries (including identifying any entries they feel deserve to be commended) in the categories assigned to them on the judging day in November.

Marking Scheme

For all details on the marking scheme make sure you view our Judging criteria.

Follow us on Twitter @FIAwards for updates on this year's awards.